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The South Korean government was found to have approved South Korean business people’s visit to North Korea for checks on their past investments there for the first time since its suspension of trade and exchange programs with the North on May 25 last year, two months after the North’s artillery attacks on Yeonpyeong Island.
Officials of Taelim Industrial went to the Kaesong Industrial Complex and investigated their production facilities with North Korean officials from June 24 through 26, a Unification Ministry official said Tuesday.
“Their visit to North Korea was permitted as a measure to protect their property right,” he add. “It is not connected with easing of the May 25 measure.”
　　
Gen. Thurman urges preparation for N. Korean regime collapse　
The incoming top American military commander in Korea said Tuesday that the United States and South Korea should prepare for the possibility of a regime collapse in North Korea.
In his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Gen. James Thurman, the nominee to lead 28,000 U.S. forces in South Korea, raised doubts over the North’s heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, who is said to be under 30.
The U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command “must continue readiness preparations to fight and win a war with North Korea and at the same time prepare to deal with the complexity of a regime collapse and the attendant consequences,” he said.
Thurman pointed out that the ongoing power succession process in the North adds “another dynamic” to deterrence.
Meanwhile, North Korea and Russia appear to have canceled their plan to hold talks between their leaders later this week, multiple sources in Moscow said Tuesday following a series of media reports of the possibility of a trip to Russia by the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il.
“It’s my understanding that a summit between Chairman Kim Jong-il and President Dmitry Medvedev was known to be scheduled to take place in Russia‘s Far Eastern region of Vladivostok on June 30 or July 1,” a senior South Korean government source said. “We have no idea yet why the talks were canceled.”
A Russian government source also said the summit plan was scrapped.
(Yonhap News)
　
S.Korea to restart Gimpo-Beijing air route from July
Flights to Beijing from Korea‘s Gimpo International Airport will take off once again starting next month.
The direct route between Gimpo and Beijing’s Capital International Airport had been suspended after the opening of Incheon International Airport back in 2001.
Four Korean and Chinese airlines, including Korean Air and Air China, will each operate two roundtrip flights per day.
The capital Seoul is more accesible from Gimpo than Incheon and the Korean government expects that the reopening of the route will make one-day business trips between Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo much more convenient.
(Arirang News)